Meshrano Jirga grills Balkhi over MoE vacancies

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Meshrano Jirga or upper house of parliament on Sunday criticised the Ministry of Education (MoE) over keeping thousands of seats vacant at a time when most Afghan youth were jobless.

Some 25,584 vacancies are lying vacant in 47 government departments across the country, including 13000 vacant posts at MoE.

The Mishrano Jirga on Sunday summoned Education Minister Asadullah Hanif Balkhi and lawmakers asked him questions about the 13,000 vacancies and about the presence of alleged ghost schools in the country.

Senator Laiulma Ahmadi, who heads the house commission on education, said many educated people were jobless and the government was not hiring them on the vacant posts.

In response, Balkhi said 12,766 posts were vacant at MoE but they had recently filled 1,904 vacancies in different provinces through the competitive exam and the rest would also be filled soon.

The minister said most of the vacant positions were in remote parts of the country, where educated people refused to perform duty despite a 30 to 50 percent increment in salaries.

To resolve the issue, he said, they were filling vacancies in district centres and provincial capitals, but 3000 positions in remote areas might remain vacant.

The 100 vacant positions of directors and managers will be announced for open competition through the Capacity Building for Result (CBR) programme and eligible and qualified persons will be hired through the process in the next two months, the education minister said.

Terminations, deaths and retirement were among reasons behind the vacant positions at the ministry, Balkhi said, but added they were been taking measures to fill the vacancies.

According to Balkhi, there are more than 215,000 teachers countrywide, with 18 percent holding bachelor’s degree, 50 percent bachelorette degree and the rest high school graduates.

Nearly 12,000 people under 12-grade education have also been hired as teachers because many people did not like to discharge duty in remote parts, the minister said. His ministry was been trying to improve the capacity of teachers, Balkhi continued.

On ghost schools, he said his ministry would submit a detailed report on the number of students, teachers, schools and needs to the parliament.

Meshrano Jirga deputy chairman Farhad Sakhi, who chaired today’s session, asked the Ministry of Education to accelerate the process of recruiting teachers in a transparent manner.